A week after the computer attack which targeted the Villefranche-sur-Saône hospital center, the Secretary of State for the digital transition Cédric O estimated that it would take at "minimum 15 days or even several weeks" before a return to normal operation of the CHU.
He also said that the situation "has been stabilized".
A return to normal in the computer system of the Villefranche-sur-Saône hospital center, in the Rhône, targeted a week ago by a cyberattack, is expected in "minimum 15 days or even several weeks", the secretary said on Monday. State for digital transition Cédric O.
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"Fifteen days minimum" before a return to normal
"Today the situation has been stabilized. We have confined the cyberattacker (...) We rebuild the information systems by reconnecting all of the daily operating systems one by one", he said during a visit to the Nord-Ouest Hospital of Villefranche-sur-Saône - Gleizé, located about forty kilometers north of Lyon.
"We should see the majority of functions resume in the days to come. In total, to return to normal operation, it will take a minimum of fifteen days or even several weeks," he added during a visit to the establishment alongside the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
"There have been 27 cyber attacks on hospitals in 2020 and since the start of 2021, it is one attack per week," added Cédric O, assuring that the government "was going to ensure that the 135 hospital groups the most important in France (...) can increase their defense systems ".
According to a ministerial press release, they will join the list of "essential service operators", a status defined in 2018 which notably implies stricter security rules and notification to the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi) incidents on the most critical systems.
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Activity still disrupted
And "no IT project can now be supported by the State if 5% to 10% of its IT budget is not dedicated to cybersecurity," the statement said.
Monday, the activity of the Villefranche-sur-Saône hospital was still very disturbed with employees who worked in "degraded mode", that is to say with paper and pen, told AFP the direction of the hospital.
However, emergency and sub-emergency operations (note: in operating theaters) were "always provided".
"Those who did that did not only attack an IT service, they endangered the lives of our fellow citizens", for his part estimated the Minister of Health, expressing his "disgust" at such gesture and saluting the "responsiveness" of the personnel on the day of the attack.
"The IT managers of the hospital in the middle of the night managed to make the right decisions to be able to protect the archives and prevent the cybervirus from spreading throughout all hospital structures," said Olivier Véran, recalling that cybersecurity was "everyone's business".
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He indicated that the State will deploy "very quickly" 350 million euros to strengthen the IT protection of French hospital groups, a sum taken from the "digital envelope" of the Ségur de la Santé.
An investigation was opened Tuesday by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor's office after the attack by the Ryuk crypto-virus of the North West Hospital.
It follows a similar attack on the hospital in Dax (Landes) on February 9.